Tachyon: The Fringe

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We got some hands-on time with the multiplayer and have 20 new screens for your viewing pleasure.

By IGN Staff

NovaLogic held a LAN party in town to celebrate the coming of their new action/space sim game Tachyon. It allowed us to get a pretty good look at the workings of the multiplayer facet of the game. That and they gave us a nice fat press disk with some great screens on it that you should scroll down and give a look.

You're probably aware of the influx of space simulation and space action games that are hitting the shelves now or pretty soon. Two of these games are Allegiance and Starlancer. Tachyon is landing right in the middle of these two as Allegiance went on line just a couple of weeks ago and Starlancer is due out in a couple of weeks. The funny thing is that Tachyon also seems to find a nice middle ground when it comes to multiplayer capability.

There is a deathmatch mode in the game, but that really isn't what shines so much about the multiplayer. There is also an option for multiplayer called Base Wars that allows for up to 120 players to join. This pits you on the side of either the Bora or the GalSpan. You can assign yourself to a team or you can set it so the computer will automatically assign newcomers to the team who has less players. Before you join in, you will also be given the choice of a few different types of ships. They range from small, quick fighters to large lumbering, really powerful bombers. This allows you to choose your ship based on your style of play.

After you ship is picked and all of that, you come into the game near your base. This is where you do all of your upgrading and such but I'll get into that in a sec. The whole point of the game is to destroy the other team's life support system on their base. This can't be done until your race increases their technology level up to ten. The technology level increases when players bring resources in the form of crystals scattered throughout the middle sector (more on that in a sec too) and from gunning down enemy ships.

After your ship is loaded up with the resources, you bring them back to the base and deposit them. This does two things. It increases the experience of the base, and increases your own experience. When the experience of the base goes up it will eventually hit a point where it will gain a level. At this point new weapons and improvements to your ship will be available. All you have to do is land and refit your ship.

Gaining in personal experience increases you in level. Each time you gain a new level and rank, your ship will become a little bit faster, a little bit more maneuverable, and a little bit more powerful.

Okay, back to the point of the game. So you collect all of these minerals to get to level 10 tech level so your team will have access to the Helios Rockets. These bad boys are the only things that can destroy the life support system on your enemy's base. Once a life support system is destroyed, the game is over.

All of this fighting takes place over three different zones that are connected via stable warp gates. Two of the zones are where the bases are and the third is a free for all combat zone where you can find the crystals. You have to go through this middle zone in order to get to the enemy base. Consequently, this is where most of the action is, especially in the early parts of the game when neither team is advanced enough to attack the base directly.

Stephen and I got a chance to play against some of the NovaLogic team along with other event attendees and it was pretty darn fun. There weren't a hundred of us in the game, but I can sure see how this game would be heavy on action if there were that many fighters flying around in the game. The game also features Voice-Over-Net capabilities that can only add to the experience of fighting a large-scale battle like this.

Keep a look out for a full review of Tachyon after the game is released to stores and don't forget to scroll down and check out 20 new screens from the game.

-- Dan Adams

March 21, 2000

Trent's not the only official Bruce Campbell fanboy -- when it was announced that the mouth of steel was going to voice Tachyon, I had feelings that I think are still illegal in most of the major continental states. We got a beta in the office a few weeks ago, and Campbell's voice provides a character and texture to the game that may just give it a fighting chance against heavyweight contenders like Starlancer, a major movie spectacle of lights and sound compared to Tachyon's more down home space shooter approach.

Tachyon takes a page from Privateer by giving you control over mission choices, wingmen, and ship maintenance. Though it's in no way purely free form (you'll find that out as soon as you're framed and thrown into Fringe in a great plot device), it's a nice blend of a great story with an open structure, cemented together with Campbell's voiceover. When you begin, you're an independent contractor selecting which jobs you'll undertake, and adding choice weaponry to one of two ships under your control. Because you're in it for the money, it's interesting to see the story unfold without your direct involvement, having you defend GalSpan in one mission while doing the same for the Bora in the next. Believe me, you'll be for and against certain entities in the game given time, but the slant is still on the almighty dollar, something always welcome in a space sim.

The universe of Tachyon is spaced out in a series of gates, which means that in order to reach certain locations you have to hop from area to area using the correct gates in order to guide you to the right destination. Fortunately, for those of you in the "lacking patience" department there's always the autopilot key, which will take you directly to a gate as long as there aren't hostile forces in the area. Controls and navigation will be very familiar to anyone that's played a flight sim, and favorite options like match speed, leading targets and slide commands are accounted for in the game. What Tachyon really gives you a sense of while in the thick of battle is just how large the universe is -- characters appear and disappear within missions, structures change, and relationships unfold between companies as you progress further into the game.

Scenarios so far have ranged from accompanying vessels on drop off missions to destroying a series of surveillance cameras in deep space. A particularly smart mission has you aiding in the suppression of a viral outbreak -- a certain section of the research station has tried to escape in fear, and it's your job to stun their ships using ECM missiles which short the ships electrical systems (no word though on how that effects life support). Though the sound effects could use a little punch, the graphics really show just how large some of the structures are. You'll never feel like space is a cold and empty place wen you visit locations in the game.

As you know from reading the preview, most of the adventure takes place in the fringe, where Jake Logan has fallen from grace and must find his way back. The first mission in the Fringe is a perfect example of the game's storytelling power, as a client cancels a transaction with Logan when he realizes who he is (and what he's allegedly done), only to have you come to the rescue anyway when fighters attack his ship. I never had a chance to interact with the station-goers so much (read the earlier previews to learn more about character interaction), though I did have a conversation with another pilot who I helped out of a bind, and who offered up her services as a wingman.

Again, it's Campbell that will really keep you coming back to this game, and not because of the snappy one liners. The character of Jake Logan is a nice leap from Evil Dead's Ash, with a charm and smarm that keep the action lively, but a seriousness that lends the story much more weight. It's a vital aspect of the game, especially one that's so primarily based on unconnected missions. But don't worry -- you'll hear more than your share of new Campbell classics like "everyone that's dead, raise your hands" to keep you chuckling. Think a wittier Han Solo, and you'll be right on the mark. Tachyon has a lot of personality, a great character, and a nice execution -- and a close release date. We'll have to wait until the final release to see how much of the multiplayer promise will be kept, but the single player game is coming along strongly. You'll be able to jump into the snappy shoes of Jake Logan yourself next month.

-- Vincent Lopez

April 19, 1999

Novalogic has been turning out sims for quite a while, but when we stopped by their offices last week, we got a chance to take a look at one of their first steps in quite awhile (anyone remember Ultrabots?) outside the comfortable bounds of realism. In their latest title Tachyon, Novalogic is trying to take the now crowded space action market back to its roots - by giving it a purpose and a brain.

The story is familiar, but not too much so. Five hundred years in the future the world has been all but taken over by giant corporations that control every aspect of human life. United under the Seven-Planet accord, all colonies within the Earth's solar system live in a relative peace as their corporate member wage economic war among themselves for the system's dwindling resources. Tired of living under the laws of such a heartless society, a rouge group calling themselves the Bora head off into the Fringe, a lawless area that was for the most part ignored by the government and the companies within it. Shortly after the Bora set up their new home, they discovered that it was rich with mineral resources. Unfortunately, as the excited community began to extract their newfound wealth, a mega-corp called GalSpan noticed that no legal claim had been made to the patch of space the miners were occupying. GalSpan quickly filled out the appropriate forms and hurried to take over the rich colony that had been set-up in the years since the Bora's exodus. The Bora were ordered to vacate. As you might imagine, this didn't sit too well with the frontier personalities of the Bora, who had spent the last few years of their life putting the final touches on their safe haven. As the game begins, the system is being torn apart by the war between the government-backed GalSpan and the fierce Bora.

Not sure which side you'd want to be on in this conflict? Don't sweat it, you won't be asked to make the choice. Your character is an independent contractor, an adventurer who has come to this tension filled sector because of the profit it promises. You'll spend your time flying from starbase to starbase picking up missions (or refusing them), exploring space and making friends and enemies as well. As you might imagine though, you won't be able to stay neutral forever. The missions you choose to accept will have a profound impact on the outcome of the war that's waging around you and sooner or later you'll have to choose between the economic power of GalSpan or the righteous anger of the Bora. While the game will have a limited number of campaign missions in order to keep the story moving along (each side has 10 missions for a total of 20), Novalogic tells us that there will be 70-80 mini missions that you can uncover during the course of the game. This free form design is really what got our attention as we watched the design team's presentation. Mike Maza, the game producer described the team's objectives by saying, "We want to foster exploration in the game. You never know what you'll find."

Actually, we can tell you a little bit of what you'll find - new weapons and new wingmen. Many of the mini-quests in the game revolve around the acquisition of an item or items that can in turn be used to upgrade your ship or offer you help in your travels. "All of the mini-quests are completely free-form," explains Maza. "When you're in the starbase and look at the mission list you'll see hints towards what you should be looking for like 'In such and such starbase they have a new plasma gel.' When you bring it back to the person who was looking for it, he might be able to craft a new weapon out of it."

You won't have to worry too much if you're having trouble finding bonus missions like these though. You'll be able to buy loads of stock weapons as well as hire wingmen at most starbases. While Novalogic is still being pretty tight with the details, we did manage to catch a look of such damage dealers as blast torpedoes that detonate at a preset range expanding into a beautiful sphere of destruction, rail guns, stingers, laser guns, plasma ejectors (described by Maza as "a flamethrower on steroids") and even ECM guns that screw up an enemies electrical systems. "We're going to try and put as many different weapons and upgrades as possible into the game," says Maza. Wingmen are another combat bonus offering players a hand in combat when things get tough. Each of the different wingmen in the game will use different AI routines, so finding one that works well with your particular style of fighting may be a large part of achieving long-term success in the game. According to NovaLogic, many of them will also have secondary characteristics that can help get you through situations that you may not otherwise be able to handle on your own. The example used by the team is that of a underworld-connected wingman who can help get your character in touch with agents that would have ignored him otherwise.

While we all agree that function is far more important than form, it must be said that Tachyon looks great, even in its pre-alpha form. Objects in the game not only exhibit a certain amount of realism in their technology meets hard living textures, but also in their size. When we took our first look at a starbase I was relatively unimpressed with the size the team had chosen for such an important object. As I continued flying towards it though, I began to realize that I was much, much further away than I had previously thought. As I approached the base it dwarfed my fighter without every loosing any detail at all. Maza promises this same level of smoothness, not only during game flights, but also when you're tied up in combat with dozens of other ships. The game's special effects were still a work in progress, but some of the little touches that we did catch a look at were pretty impressive. Stars leave a lens flare in the canopy of your fighter and will blind you if you fly straight at them, explosions are rich and colorful and weapon blasts feature some really cool patterns that I've yet to see. Overall it's pretty obvious that, unless Novalogic does something horribly wrong between now and the game's release, the game's going to be a visual feast.

Okay, so there's a lot of stuff we haven't gotten a chance to really check out in detail yet (give us a break, the game's not even coming out until this fall), but we have heard that the company is looking to incorporate a multi-player mode that will enable over 120 different pilots to jump into their ships and duke it out in the Tachyon universe. While the details still aren't available yet, keep checking our pages for an upcoming full interview with the game's producer and extended coverage at E3 this May.